[Developer Blog] The ease of EVE

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The new player experience in EVE has vastly improved since the early days and was last changed for the Incarna expansion. There are still many things to do and we&rsquo;re looking to further improve the way new capsuleers learn about EVE and its many possibilities. As a part of the refocus on the basics of EVE, a new team has been put together to tackle this important task, consisting of CCP NerfHerder, CCP Feyhr, CCP Dropbear and CCP Legion (the undersigned) and we would like to hear your feedback regarding the new player experience.

EVE is a very unique game and it enables players to have a lot of fun even if they have never touched some game mechanics. We want to give new players the best possible experience from the very beginning and lay the groundwork for an enjoyable time in New Eden. As you can see in the below scientific graph, EVE rewards those who accumulate &ldquo;EVE knowledge&rdquo; in a way other games do not.

This Player Experience team will focus on making EVE more accessible to players without dumbing down the game. So the main area for us is naturally the tutorial and everything around it, but we will also be focusing on what happens before a player logs in and after the player completes the tutorials and wishes to explore the universe during their first few months in New Eden.

We want to give the new players a smooth and consistent online gaming experience, where they are comfortable with the game mechanics and know what they wish to be in New Eden. We aim to teach new players how to play EVE in a way which is gripping, exciting, clear and most importantly FUN. We want players to have increased social interaction with the community and corporations in the beginning. We wish to give new players more direction and the understanding of what they can become, and guide them towards that goal. We want to give the players a chance to experience the coolness of EVE even in the beginning and make them understand all the potential within the game. In short, we want to make the first days, weeks and months in EVE enjoyable and not just something &lsquo;you have to plough through in order to get to the good stuff&rsquo;. Having said that, we have no intention to make the game easier in any way, we are not looking into simplifying EVE Online, nor do we want to tell the players exactly what they should do or give them a step by step guide for wormhole mining for example. Rather, the approach we are taking is to make it easier for new players to learn and understand the different mechanics and features of EVE.

To begin with the Player Experience team will do research to identify where and why people lose interest in EVE. We will look at a wide range of statistics, player and trial surveys, conduct focus group tests and we would also really like to hear ideas from within the EVE community as well. Some problems are very obvious whilst other factors are more subtle. In the short term we might be able to do small changes to the current new player experience, but long term we are aiming to overhaul and redesign the whole experience.

We invite you to pour your heart (or guts) out and tell us what you think is good or bad with the current new player experience and what you think could be done about the problems. Both small and big ideas are welcome, especially if you have your first weeks freshly in mind. What small things do you think could be done to the current tutorial or do you think it should be binned and a new one built from the ground up? What would your ideal EVE tutorial look like? Let us know what you think.

Once we have a solid plan together we will be sharing them with you for more feedback. Till then, fly safe and go easy on the new guys.

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